Workplace assaults are rising. The American workforce is paying the price

The new complexity of the assault claim

Beyond raw frequency, what has changed in recent years is the nature of the claims themselves. McKenna and his colleagues at Gallagher Bassett have been running a longitudinal study of workplace violence across their public-sector client base — cities, counties, municipalities, and public schools — since 2017. The findings are striking.

Among K–12 educators, claims involving teachers injured by students rose by approximately 25 to 26 percent in the two years following the return to in-person learning after the pandemic. More troubling, those claims have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. They have plateaued at a higher baseline.

In workers’ compensation, a “complex” claim is a term of art with real financial implications. It typically involves multiple injured body parts, a psychological trauma overlaid on a physical injury, extended time away from work, and, increasingly, legal representation. Intentional acts — assaults — produce these features at higher rates than slips, falls, or repetitive-motion injuries.

“They tend to involve more complex injuries, more mental health impacts, longer recovery periods, and in some cases more permanent impacts,” McKenna said.

A worker who sustains a physical injury in a fall may, with proper treatment, return to the same job without residual fear. A worker who is assaulted may struggle to reenter the environment where the assault occurred. That psychological dimension — now increasingly recognized as compensable in jurisdictions across the country, particularly